As he exits Congress, the troubled Texan speaks of pride, sin and grinning

Shortly before Representative Tom DeLay announced he would leave Congress by summer, half a dozen advisers were on a conference call debating how to unveil their stunning secret. Suddenly, DeLay's Texas twang silenced the chatter. "Anybody wanna hear what I wanna do?" he asked mischievously.

Befitting a tactician and power broker who once ran the Capitol with equal parts guile and muscle, DeLay did it his way as he prepared to leave public life. He shunned the weepy contrition deployed by disgraced predecessors over the years and instead went out pummeling. He threatened to make one of his last acts an...